Newcastle secure vital win over Man United in chase for Premier League top four spot

Newcastle United secured a superb 2-0 victory over Manchester United to leapfrog their opponents in the race for a Premier League top four spot.

The Red Devils had come out on top when the two teams met in the League Cup final but it was the Magpies who dominated from start to finish at St James' Park on Sunday.

After the likes of Joe Willock, Alexander Isak and Sean Longstaff all missed good chances to open the scoring, it was not until the 65th minute that Eddie Howe's side broke the deadlock.

And it came from Willock after a lovely move involving Isak, Bruno Guimaraes and Allan Sain-Maximin before the former Arsenal midfielder headed home.

The three points were sealed two minutes from time when substitute Callum Wilson headed home to send the home crowd wild.

Newcastle are now up to third place, level on 50 points – one more than they collected during the whole of the last campaign – with Man United, but have a significantly better goal difference.

Both sides made early inroads in an enterprising start to the game with Marcus Rashford and Antony menacing in wide positions for the visitors as Isak stretched their defence.

Longstaff miskicked in front of goal after Isak had headed down Kieran Trippier's sixth-minute cross at the end of a flowing counter-attack seconds after Sven Botman had dived in to block as Marcel Sabitzer burst into the Newcastle penalty area.

A fiercely-contested game saw both combatants employ high presses when out of possession with time at a premium for defenders and as Saint-Maximin started to find his feet, it was the home side who began to exert sustained pressure.

David De Gea had to palm away Isak's header from Jacob Murphy's 16th-minute cross with the Spaniard also managing to block